Your Move, Shepard Smith

With news coming today that Republican Sen. Tom Coburn plans to block any attempt to the pass a bill designed to aid and compensate 9-11 first responders, it will be interesting to see how Fox News anchor Shepard Smith covers the latest obstructionist development. (Coburn insists the legislation can be addressed "next year," even though supporters say they have more than enough votes to pass the bill this week.)

To Smith's credit, he's been virtually alone at Fox News in reporting accurately that it's been Republicans, and Republicans alone, who have stood in the way of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, named after a first responder who died from a respiratory disease attributed to his rescue efforts on the morning of the Sept. 11 terror attack.

On yesterday's show, Smith read off the name of Republican members of the Congress who refused to appear on his show and explain their opposition to the bill.

But now, nearly 24 hours later, it looks like whatever momentum the Zadroga bill had this week has faded with Coburn poised to block the bill for the second time this month. (A House version of the bill passed by 100 votes in September.) Like I said, it will be interesting to see how Smith handles a story he feels passionate about that so clearly features Republicans in the starring role of Scrooge.

Plus, will Smith take issue with the contemptuous claim made on Fox News last night that the first responder bill is just a "sentimental" piece of legislation, not "a big deal," and represents "everything that's wrong with the way government operates in Washington"?

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EricBoehlert
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A Senior Fellow for Media Matters, Boehlert is the author of Bloggers On the Bus: How The Internet Changes Politics and the Press, and Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush. Previously, he wrote on staff for Salon and Rolling Stone.

On December 7, President-elect Donald Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Media should take note of Pruitt’s climate science denial, his deep ties to the energy industries he will be charged with regulating, and his long record of opposition to EPA efforts to reduce air and water pollution and combat climate change.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked -- or considered -- nearly a dozen people who have worked in right-wing media, including talk radio, right-wing news sites, Fox News, and conservative newspapers, to fill his administration. And Trump himself made weekly guest appearances on Fox for a number of years while his vice president used to host a conservative talk radio show.